New series includes more overnight stays, late-night stays and first-time ports

Azamara Club Cruises is offering its most comprehensive selection of itineraries for 2011-12, with sailings in 54 countries and calls at 174 ports.

Announcing the company’s sailing programme today, Azamara Club Cruises President & CEO Larry Pimentel, explained, “Azamara Club Cruises is built around four key pillars: extraordinary service, cuisine and wines of the world, wellness and vitality, and destination immersion. But what distinguishes our brand most is our ability to deliver the destination, and our new itineraries were precisely built around that commitment.”

The 694-guest Azamara Journey looks forward to a truly global season that sees the ship begin with a transatlantic voyage from Miami in April 2011 and finish 12 months later in the Caribbean, via the Mediterranean and South America.
 

Each successive sailing will allow cruisers wanting a lengthier holiday to combine two or more, seven-night itineraries back-to-back, with very few, if any, repeat ports depending on the segments chosen.

Azamara Journey

Season highlights for Azamara Journey include a four-night Monaco Grand Prix sailing from Nice on May 26, 2011, including a visit to Monte Carlo on the day of the famed race, as well as stops in popular Portofino (Italy) and St. Tropez (France). Prices start from £643 per person.

In the summer the ship’s sailings focus initially on wine-themed Mediterranean cruises with a unique 10-night sailing from Dublin (29 August, 2011) highlighted by visits to Holyhead (Wales) and Cork (Ireland), where guests can visit the famed Guggenheim Museum; Gijon and Vigo (Spain), featuring the magnificent town of Santiago de Compostella, and overnight stays in Bordeaux (France), and Lisbon (Portugal) during the grape harvest season. Prices start from £1,818 per person.

Also new is a season in South America, beginning with two consecutive 14-night voyages – one each from San Juan and from Manaus (Brazil), with visits to the Grenadines (Barbados), and exotic locations along Brazil’s Amazon River. Prices start from £2,106 per person from San Juan on 25 October sailing.

From 4 December, 2011 until 9 March, 2012, Azamara Journey will offer a series of itineraries ranging from eight to 16 nights, with the latter highlighted by three consecutive days in the Antarctic Sound, a visit just off Cape Horn, and a stop in the Falkland Islands.

Many of Azamara Journey’s South America voyages were designed around popular local events, such as two nights at chic Punta del Este (Uruguay) during the Christmas holiday; viewing New Year’s Eve fireworks off the shores of Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) as well as two full days in Rio during its famous ‘Carnaval’ in February.

The exotic West Indies again welcomes guests on Azamara Journey in March 2012, with a series of three seven-night sailings that round out the ship’s new deployment. Among the destinations are Mayreau (Grenadines); St. Lucia (Marigot), St. Martin (Virgin Gorda) British Virgin Islands; and an overnight stay in Gustavia (St. Barts). Prices start from £946 per person.

These voyages can be combined into back-to-back 14-night segments allowing guests to explore a new set of hideaway ports each week.

Azamara Quest

A first-ever call at Krakatoa is the undoubted highlight of unusual ports and sights visited by Azamara Quest for 2011-12.

Guests will have the chance to get close to the world’s most famous – and active – volcano during a 12-night Christmas and New Year voyage from Singapore calling in Thailand and Vietnam. Weather permitted, a landing will be attempted!

Also new is a 10-night Red Sea itinerary from the line’s first-time departure port of Suez (Sokhna, Egypt), on 17 November 2011, featuring overnight stays in both Sharm el Sheikh and Safaga (Egypt), along with Aqaba (Jordan), and Eilat (Israel). Excursions will include the opportunity to take in historic treasures, including Luxor and St. Catherine’s Monastery in Egypt, Masada in Israel, and the fabled Petra and the Wadi Rum Desert in Jordan. Prices start from £1,424 per person.

For the first time the ship will feature a selection of India itineraries, calling at Mumbai during both April and November. Also making its debut is the Omani capital of Muscat.

For more information visit the Azamara Club Cruises web site at www.azamaraclubcruises.com or visit your local ACE accredited travel agent.
 

Reinvigorated Azamara Club Cruises brand offers exceptional options for the upmarket Asian cruiser

 

SINGAPORE, 22 December, 2009 – Upmarket cruise line Azamara Club Cruises is marking its presence in Asia again with the return of its ship Azamara Quest to Singapore today to kick-start her second consecutive Asian season. The ship arrived at the Singapore Cruise Centre early this morning following a 24-night voyage from Athens. She will be homeported in both Singapore and Hong Kong offering new itineraries and destinations through to April 2010.

 

Upmarket cruising experience on Azamara Quest

Azamara Club Cruises combines a more intimate onboard experience while allowing access to the less-traveled ports of call experienced travelers want to visit. Azamara Club Cruises combines destination immersion, exceptional service, fine cuisine and wines from around the world, and wellness and vigor programs.

Azamara Quest, a 694-guest ship, offers concierge-style amenities, including fresh-cut flowers, fresh fruit, Elemis toiletries, use of Frette cotton robes, plasma TVs and plush European bedding. Also featured are world class spa treatments with the finest therapists and aestheticians. Aromastone therapy and body sculpting are just some of the many ways to be pampered onboard. For meals, guests will have a choice of one of two specialty restaurants: Mediterranean-influenced Aqualina and a stylish steak and seafood restaurant Prime C, the main dining room, or the casual dining venue. Most of all, with one staff member for every two guests, Azamara's personal service is unparalleled.

An opportunity to truly discover Asian destinations

While delving deep into the history and culture of remote destinations larger ships cannot reach, guests sailing with Azamara Club Cruises will also enjoy a more exclusive experience. These special trips into the ports of call are designed to let guests become part of the fabric of life in each destination, instead of merely being an observer. The brand has recently been redesigned to include a newly refined focus - its new tagline “You’ll love where we take you” best describes the destination focus of Azamara Club Cruises, which allows guests to truly experience a community and its culture.

Azamara Quest will embark on a series of six 14- and 18-night Southeast and Northeast Asian voyages this Asian season. Guests will be allowed to further immerse themselves in Asia’s mixture of history and modernity with at least one in-port overnight stay per voyage in destinations such as Hue (Danang), Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi (Halong Bay), Beijing (Tianjin), Hong Kong and Singapore.

Details of the sailings are as follows:
• A special 18-night Christmas and New Year's voyage from Singapore to Hong Kong from December 22, 2009, to January 9, 2010, with overnights in Ho Chi Minh City, Hue (Danang), Hanoi (Halong Bay), Hong Kong and Singapore, and visits to Bangkok (Klong Toey) and Canton (Guangzhou).
• Two 14-night Southeast Asia sailings from Singapore to Hong Kong on January 23 and February 20, 2010, featuring overnights in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as a visit to Hue.
• Two 14-night Southeast Asia sailings from Hong Kong to Singapore on January 9 and February 6, 2010, featuring overnights in Ho Chi Minh City, Hong Kong and Singapore and visits to Hue (Danang), Sihanoukville and Bangkok (Klong Toey).
• One 14-night Northeast Asia sailing from Hong Kong to Shanghai on March 6, 2010, featuring overnights in Beijing (Tianjin), Hong Kong and Singapore, as well as visits to Taipei (Keelung), Nagasaki, Seoul (Incheon) and Dalian.

 

Newly refined brand unveils multiple new attributes for upmarket travellers

 

December 8, 2009 – Azamara Cruises – the two-ship brand launched in 2007 with the 694-guest Azamara Journey and sister ship Azamara Quest – today became “Azamara Club Cruises.”

 

 

The newly refined brand features more inclusive options for guests such as gratuities, house wines with lunch and dinner, and coffee and bottled water throughout the day. Azamara Club Cruises also focuses on slowing the cruise experience down with more overnight stays and late night departures from ports of call to increase guest immersion in a destination. The developments will be implemented from April 2010.

 

Since taking the helm of Azamara Cruises in July of this year, Larry Pimentel has spent several weeks talking with travel agents, past guests and media to determine how to make his great-to-exceptional goal a reality.

 

“This isn’t a strategy of going ‘from good to great’,” said Azamara Club Cruises President & CEO Larry Pimentel. “This is about taking an already great product and making it exceptional.”

 

“Today’s cruisers have incredible new vacation options – like Celebrity Cruise’s stunning Solstice Class, and Royal Caribbean’s Oasis of the Seas,” said Pimentel. “Azamara Club Cruises will distinguish itself by delivering the destination like no other line.”

 

Azamara Club Cruises will visit 140 ports in 50 countries in 2010, with itineraries featuring more overnight stays to allow guests to immerse themselves in communities and cultures. Among the overnight locations are Istanbul (Turkey), Sorrento (Italy), a full three days and two nights in St Petersburg (Russia) and multiple overnight stays in Southeast Asia including Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok, Singapore and Hong Kong.

 

“We’re going to slow down the tempo, and allow our guests to not just see the destination, but to live it,” said Pimentel. “Consider destinations like St. Tropez or St. Petersburg, Russia. If you’ve experienced them only by day, you haven’t really experienced them. With Azamara Club Cruises, through more overnight stays and late-night stays, you can.”

 

The destination focus of Azamara Club Cruises inspired the brand’s new tagline – “You’ll love where we take you” – and will extend to its shore excursions.

 

Azamara Club Cruises has created distinctive two-day packages tailored to the overnight destinations to make it easy for guests to immerse themselves in each location, whether it’s Dubrovnik, Croatia; Odessa, Ukraine; Livorno (Florence), Italy, Warnemunde (Berlin), Germany, or London, in addition to Sorrento and St. Petersburg.

 

The new brand will also will offer experiences such as a two-night package from Bangkok to Laos; an overnight tour from Hiroshima to Osaka via bullet train; a three-night experience from Mumbai including a visit to the Taj Mahal; overnight tours in Israel between Ashdod and Cairo, and a Grand Egypt tour featuring the best of both Luxor and Cairo.

 

Among Azamara Club Cruise’s speciality tours include a Ferrari driving tour in Civitavecchia, Italy; a walk down memory lane in Liverpool with the “In the steps of The Beatles” tour; a private demonstration of chocolate flavours in Dubrovnik; a “Theatre A La Carte” evening in London; Croatian liqueur tasting in Zadar; an Imperial Russian Court evening at Tsarskoye Selo in St. Petersburg; an evening gondola serenade in Venice; and high tea at the Burj al Arab Hotel in Dubai.

 

Praised for its dining experience since its founding, Azamara Club Cruises will continue to place a heavy emphasis on fine cuisine, and will expand its focus on wine to include vintages from boutique wineries around the world. Guests will have the opportunity to taste high quality wines unavailable at home, because the selected vineyards produce a strictly limited quantity each year, distributed primarily locally. The featured wines will be offered complimentary at lunches and dinners on every sailing.

 

Wellbeing will be a core component of the Azamara Club Cruises experience, too, with onboard and land-based experiences designed to help guests feel and look healthier and more youthful. Azamara Club Cruise’s aim in wellbeing is to help guests balance their physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual needs through massages, facials and other spa treatments, as well as acupuncture, yoga, Pilates, and enrichment programmes.

 

The newly refined brand also is intensely focused on offering exceptional service.

 

“Extraordinary service is paramount with Azamara Club Cruises,” said Pimentel. “We know every travel and hospitality organisation proclaims it’s committed to great service, so what will make Azamara Club Cruises stand out? Firstly, our butlers will be trained to be true English butlers, offering a fine balance of anticipatory, pampering, yet non-intrusive service to guests in every suite.” Guests in staterooms will be served by the line’s host of experienced stateroom attendants.

 

Azamara Club Cruises also will transition to a primarily all-inclusive experience, with the following included in the cruise fare beginning with the first voyages in April 2010 on Azamara Journey and Azamara Quest: a specific brand of bottled water offered at no charge throughout the voyage, whether in public venues or in staterooms; specialty coffees and teas; housekeeping and dining gratuities; shuttlebus service to/from port communities, where available; destination-influenced entertainment and enrichment programmes; all meals and room service; house wine at lunches and dinners; and self-service laundry. Specialty dining in Azamara Club Cruise’s intimate Prime C steakhouse and the Mediterranean-influenced Aqualina will be complimentary for suite guests for the duration of their cruise.

 

Cruisers who can’t get enough of Azamara Club Cruises will be invited to join the line’s new loyalty programme, “Le Club Voyage,” with specific features and benefits yet to be announced.

 

Larry Pimentel has also enlisted a small new Miami-based team focused 100 percent on Azamara Club Cruises, including VP of Sales & Marketing Edie Bornstein, AVP of Hotel Operations Bert Van Middendorp, Director of Marketing Signe Bjorndal, Director of National Accounts Michelle Nevin, and an eight-member field sales team dedicated solely to Azamara Club Cruises.

 

Together, Pimentel and team shaped the new Azamara Club Cruises, whose most distinguishing new attributes will be in effect by April 2010.

 

For more information, see www.azamaraclubcruises.com.

 

 

44 ports of call in 23 different countries for destination-led cruise brand.

The 2010-2011 season from Azamara Cruises is now on sale offering the chance to visit a sanctuary for endangered scarlet macaws in Puntarenas, Costa Rica; go snorkelling with sea lions in La Paz, Mexico; or go behind the scenes at the Tsingdao Brewery in Qingdao, China.

 

The 694-guest Azamara Quest returns to the Far East for the third consecutive year in 2010, and sister ship Azamara Journey offers a series of both favourite and new winter Caribbean itineraries. This includes the first time a ship in the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line family has sailed in the Sea of Cortez (Gulf of California) when Azamara Journey calls in ports such as Mazatlan, Guaymas and La Paz in Mexico.

 

In Asia, Azamara Cruises’ ship Azamara Quest will visit 21 ports of call in ten different countries including India, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, China and Japan. Plus, Azamara Quest will also offer a 24-night repositioning cruise from Athens to Singapore departing on 27 November 2010. All the Southeast Asia cruises include at least four overnight stays in a port of call. Guests can enjoy such extended stays in Hong Kong, Singapore, Bangkok, Hanoi (Halong Bay), and Ho Chi Minh City.

 

Highlights of the Azamara Journey 2010-2011 Caribbean cruises include:

 

· 23 ports of call across 13 different countries from Miami and San Diego with the winter Caribbean season starting earlier than in previous years

· 12-night round trip cruises from Miami featuring ports of call such as St John and St Croix in the US Virgin Islands, Marigot in Saint Martin, Basseterre in St Kitts, Pointe A Pitre in Guadeloupe, Gustavia in St Barts, Virgin Gorda in the British Virgin Islands, Castries in St Lucia and Roseau in Dominica. Itineraries available in November 2010, and between February and April 2011.

· Two 16-night Panama Canal cruises sailing from Miami to San Diego in December 2010 and January 2011 including central America ports of call such as Cartagena in Columbia, Puntarenas in Costa Rica, San Juan Del Sur in Nicaragua and Huatulco, Acapulco, and Cabo San Lucas in Mexico

· In January 2010 two 11-night brand new Sea of Cortex cruises from San Diego featuring five ports of call new for Azamara Cruises, and the entire Royal Caribbean Cruise Line family. Ports of call include Mazatlan for the Sierra Madre mountains; Topolobampo known for its close proximity to Copper Canyon; Loreto – the first Spanish settlement in the California peninsular; Guaymas which had its first ever cruise ship visit in 2008 and is newly accessible to cruising; and La Paz close to Los Islotes which is renowned for its large sea lion population

 

Prices for the Azamara Cruises winter Caribbean 2010-2011 season start from £1,685 pp for a 12-night Caribbean cruise onboard Azamara Journey.

 

In Asia, cruises available onboard Azamara Quest in the 2010-2011 winter season include:

 

· 24-night repositioning cruise from Athens to Singapore on 27 November 2010 including overnight stays in Dubai and Mumbai and a transit through the Suez Canal

· Chinese New Year 14-night cruise departing Singapore for Hong Kong on 22 January 2011 with overnight stays in all ports of call bar one including Bangkok, Hanoi (Halong Bay) and Ho Chi Minh City

· Two 12-night Northeast Asia sailings between Hong Kong and Shanghai in March 2011 each offering different itineraries allowing for guests to enjoy a 24-night back-to-back sailing. The northbound option features Kagoshima, Nagasaki and Kyoto (Osaka) in Japan, Xiamen in China and Busan in South Korea; and the southbound cruise includes an overnight stay in Beijing (Tianjin), Seoul (Incheon) and two new ports of call for Azamara Cruises – Qingdao in China and Jeju Island in South Korea

 

Prices for the Asia 2010-11 season start from £2,531 pp for an 14-night Southeast Asia fly/cruise onboard Azamara Quest.

 

Azamara Cruises also offers cruise tour options in Asia allowing guests to expand their experience of the region with a fully-escorted land tour. Six different seven-night tours are available with pre-cruise packages starting Beijing and ending in Hong Kong, or post-cruise tours starting in Hong Kong and ending in Beijing. Tours include visits to the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and the Great Wall at Mutianyue.

 

Azamara Cruises unlocks the hidden corners of the world for those who desire to immerse themselves in the rich details of every voyage. The deluxe ships – Azamara Journey and Azamara Quest – offer an intimate experience, while allowing access to exotic destinations experienced travelers long to reach. For the 694 guests on each Azamara Cruises ship, every moment at sea embodies the pinnacle of luxury, and each footstep on shore accentuates the difference between visiting a place and getting a true sense of place. This year, Azamara Cruises presents the best of enchanting Europe, elite Asia, and the most captivating Caribbean and the Panama Canal. The line also offers unique cruisetours in Asia and Europe.